Latest news with #Laura
Vancouver Sun
4 hours ago
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
This Canadian women's clothing company has been in business for 95 years
In 1930, Laura Wolstein opened her first boutique on St. Hubert Avenue in Montreal. Focusing on service, the womenswear boutique became a go-to for stylish shoppers in the city. Ninety-five years later, that original boutique has blossomed into a cross-Canada, family owned clothing company called Laura. 'At Laura, women transform the way they dress, unlocking a new confidence guided by our personable, talented style advisers and cohesive collections of easy-to-wear styles in over 80 stores across Canada,' says Josh Fisher, the senior vice-president of Laura Canada. We caught up with Fisher to learn more: Discover the best of B.C.'s recipes, restaurants and wine. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of West Coast Table will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Q: What makes Laura unique? A: Our customers deserve to feel great in their clothes and want to be able to get dressed with confidence. We focus on attracting style advisers who love to empower people, have a skill for inspiring and uplifting, and the talent to assemble flattering outfits for each customer. Over time, this has become more unique in retail. We aim to make the shopping experience itself enjoyable and do everything we can to leave customers empowered to get dressed to look and feel their best every day. In today's disconnected digital age, genuine, face-to-face connections are more important than ever, and women ought to feel great about how they present themselves. Many women's resolve to find confidence in their style is strongest when preparing for milestone events, which is how Laura has earned a reputation as Canada's leading destination for special occasion dresses. A post shared by Laura Canada (@lauracanada) Q: What has changed throughout the past 95 years? A: I'm 43 so part of this is second-hand. Fashion has obviously changed, dressing has become more casual and the supply chain more global. The malls have introduced more international brands to our markets, and much more fast-fashion. This has contributed to the despair many women feel, and makes our mission even more important. Nearly all customers are now attached to smartphones, get emails and browse online. But stores are where we truly connect. Q: And what has stayed the same? A: Our focus on helping women discover the power of fashion as a vehicle of self-expression, joy and connection. We've always cultivated a culture of empowering customers to put together flattering outfits to feel their best, and sought to hire people who derive gratification from helping women in that way. We're fortunate that over 100 employees have been with us at least 10 years. Our long-term view on business strategy, enabled by our family owned and operated structure. And pride in our Canadian heritage. On that point, all our collections are designed in Montreal, and nearly 30 per cent of our styles are still manufactured in Canada. We recently developed a 30-second ad for TV for the first time. Our marketing team moved quickly when we saw the fear and frustrations around the trade war and political narratives. We wanted to remind people that there's a lot of pride and uniqueness in our shared identity as Canadians. It really resonated with employees and customers. Q: The Canadian fashion and retail industry can be tough. To what do you attribute Laura's enduring success? A: Staying focused on the role we play in empowering our customers to look their best. And treating employees the way we want them to treat the customers. Q: What's next for the company? A: We continue to get more focused with our product assortment to drive more accessible merchandising displays. We continue to update and upgrade, with new stores and renovations planned for this fall and next spring, the new Shopify Point of Sale and payments system for all stores, a DC upgrade, a renewed investment in training and skill development, etc. And we stand ready to guide the next woman who walks into one of our stores, ready to take a step towards becoming her own stylist.
Daily Mirror
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
'Chic' £6 Home Bargains living room 'book' looks beautiful on a coffee table
The "elegant" piece not only "beautifies your space" but also "invites heartfelt conversations" Home Bargains' newest collection of home decor has captivated numerous shoppers eager to snag one specific item. Following the unveiling of a new £5.99 living room 'book', bargain-hunters and design interior fans have been hurrying to stores to grab it. On Instagram, the official Home Bargains account shared with its 1.1m followers what its new Coffee Table Albums look like. The photo albums are 'chic' enough to put on a show on a living room coffee table, or would look equally as good on a bookshelf or in the bedroom. Home Bargains describes the new coffee table photo albums as a "tasteful" combination of design, craftsmanship, and personal history. They are said to "transform" your living space into a "gallery of treasured moments." The budget retailer adds: "Whether you place it in your living room, study, or any other communal area, this album adds a touch of sentiment and elegance to your home, elevating the ambience and inviting conversation, connection, and joy." There are two versions of the coffee table photo albums to choose from. One is a cream colour with a silver disco ball design on the front cover, including the words: "This is our Era". The second design is more of a taupe colour, with a heart and the words: "It's a love story." Both versions are sure to be a hit for any Taylor Swift fan, given the ties to her Eras Tour and her famous Love Story lyrics. In an Instagram post, Home Bargains shared a video of the new photo albums, which are 31cm long and 26cm wide. The caption reads: "Upgrade your vibe with a statement making coffee table album - because good taste should be on display." It didn't take long for the likes and comments to start pouring in from hundreds of impressed shoppers. One person replied: "These are lovely." A second tagged a friend and wrote: "Neeeeed! A third told their mate: "Think I need a trip to Home Bargains." A fourth, who clearly knows her friend is a Taylor Swift fan, said: "You need the Eras one." Another, called Laura, told her friend, Millie: "Disco ball one is needed for you." The Taylor Swift-themed photo albums have also been a hit on TikTok, with several videos about them already cropping up. One content creator called Cayley Wilders said: "Swifties, run to Home Bargains for these Taylor-themed coffee table albums. What an absolute find! And just £5.99 too!" Another called Nicole Boyle said: "The cutest books to put your pics from eras tour in!!!" In a separate video, a user called Pips said: "THE MIRRORBALL WI5 THE ERA BIT SO TAYLOR CODED." Em wrote: "Need for when I get living room decorated." But some are struggling to get their hands on one, with one person commenting: "Can't find one, desperate for the disco ball one."
Daily Mirror
11 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mirror
‘Non-invasive neck lift in a stick' that shoppers call a ‘magic eraser for wrinkles'
This innovative serum-in-a-stick solution for sagging skin and wrinkles is already proving to be a hit with shoppers, with visibly smoother skin in as little as four weeks The neck area is often one of the first to show signs of ageing, but it can also be one of the trickiest to treat. Luckily, we've come across a nifty skincare solution: a retinol-rich swipe-on stick for younger-looking skin in weeks. Top skincare brand RoC has just launched its new Derm Correxion Retinol Firming Serum Stick into Boots, priced at £39.99. Developed in collaboration with dermatologists and plastic surgeons and enriched with RoC's trademark retinol, this handy stick is designed to be swept across the face, neck, chest and even hands to help to hydrate, smooth lines and increase skin's elasticity. In RoC's tests, users saw smoother and hydrated skin immediately, 94% reported visibly reduced lines after one week of use, and 94% said they had visibly firmer skin after four weeks. And it's not just the official tests and before-and-after photos that are impressive – shopper reviews on the Boots website are also praising this clever little stick: One person called it a "magic eraser for wrinkles", writing: "I love the ROC Derm Correxion firming serum stick. It literally is like a magic eraser for wrinkles! you can put on your neck, face or hands to lessen the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. I use this every day and highly recommended!" "I am in shock at how well this works! It goes on smooth and adsorbs well, not greasy. I'm 62 and get tons of complements on how great my skin looks since I started using it," another agreed. "Love it. Will buy again!" A third person reported seeing results in a matter of weeks: "I am impressed with this product! Not only is application easy with the roll-on packaging, wrinkles showed definite improvement in the first two weeks of use. I use it once daily, and though it can be used morning and evening, I've kept it to once a day because I've had reactions to retinol products in the past, and there was still definite improvement to face wrinkles." Not everyone saw such quick results though. One shopper wrote that although they "absolutely love the applicator and wish more skincare products rolled on like this" and were "happy to report I had no side effects", they "haven't really seen any drastic results yet", going on to add that "I know retinols can take some time to work so hopefully this has more of an effect as time goes on." While we're yet to test this out ourselves, one neck serum we have tried out is the popular BOOST LAB Edelweiss Neck Firming Serum, £25, which caught our eye after Lisa Snowdon praised its effects. Our beauty editor Laura found that, while you shouldn't expect miracles, it does improve the condition of the skin on this delicate area; you can read her full review here.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
"Lifelong bond" formed by two kids given dream experience to command Regina's RCMP Academy
Two 10-year-old girls donned the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's ceremonial Red Serge uniform on Tuesday as they were put in charge of the RCMP Academy's Depot Division in Regina for a day. Janine from Lloydminster was one of the children selected to take part in a two-day experience hosted by the RCMP, including one day in Edmonton and the second in Regina. The youngsters were allowed to 'fly a drone, and I liked flying the drone,' said Janine, who also experienced 'petting some dogs and crushing a car (with a police truck).' This is the second year that the RCMP has offered a once-in-a-lifetime experience through the Kids with Cancer Society based in Edmonton. Tessa from Fort McMurray was also selected, and her favourite activity was also flying the drones. Only the first names of the girls were shared for their privacy. Janine described the experience as 'awesome.' For her mom, Laura, it meant a lot to see her daughter welcomed so warmly by the RCMP. It even brought tears to her eyes, she says. Janine was diagnosed with leukemia in 2021 but finished treatment two years ago. She's been in good health since, her mom says. 'Between COVID isolation and cancer, she was alone a lot so having this experience where she got to meet another cancer kid is really special for her,' said Laura, who accompanied her daughter over the two days. 'And she got to make some friends and do some cool experiences. I think her and Tessa formed like a lifelong bond.' The girls were taken for a helicopter ride above Edmonton and then later in the day flew to Regina, where they were fitted with their own Red Serge to join the cadet graduation dinner. On Tuesday, the RCMP held the Sergeant Major's Parade for a change of command and the girls inspected the cadets as co-commanding officers for the day. 'Children who are battling cancer miss so much,' said Madison McElligott, who is the events manager of the Kids with Cancer Society. 'This is our way of trying to give them a day back that they never would have (had).' The Kids with Cancer Society provides a variety of services to families in northern Alberta. The program also includes 'unique' dream experiences for the children, like the one held with the RCMP. Laura says it's already something they will never forget, adding that Janine might consider returning to Regina one day as a cadet. 'I'm so proud,' said her mother. 'She says she wants to come back and train.' Related 'A Canadian image': RCMP Heritage Centre a pillar in celebrating force's history Something special is brewing at RCMP Heritage Centre nyking@ The Regina Leader-Post has created an Afternoon Headlines newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day. Click here to subscribe. With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here to subscribe.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
4 advantages give Alphabet a 'strategic position' in AI race
Needham & Company senior media and internet analyst Laura Martin joins Market Domination with Josh Lipton to discuss Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) upcoming earnings report and what investors need to see for the stock to be considered in good shape. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination here. alphabet set to report second quarter results on Wednesday, analysts overall optimistic on the tech giant. The stock having 63 buys on the street according to coverage tracked by Bloomberg, but while there are attractive trends at play for alphabet, we know the antitrust risk for the mag 7 stock do hang its overhead here to discuss this and more. Got Needham senior media and internet analyst Laura Martin. Laura, it is great to see you on the show as always. The concern for investors, Laura, on this one, as you well know, and I'm looking at the stock, it's basically flat year to date, is how AI is going to disrupt search, how it's going to disrupt Google's bread and butter. I'm sure you get questions, of course, from your clients about this, Laura. What do you tell them? So I think what we need to see, we're looking for Google to report 9% search growth, 13% YouTube growth, cloud growth of 10. What we want to see is that search number, that search ad number sort of holding up right around double digits, the above 10% would beat the whisper number. Below 9% would be bad. That would imply that generative AI answers is eating into their revenue per query. They're telling us that the revenue is equal, so that that's why growth hasn't slowed. But if we see a break in that, that would be bad for the shares. But so long as they report over 9% ad revenue growth from search, specifically, I think the stock's fine. It bottomed in April. It's had a nice run since April, but as you say, year to date, flat from the beginning of the year to now. So we would expect better performance in the shares if search breaks double digit growth, uh, revenue growth in this, the second quarter. As Laura, as Google now finds itself in this competition with the likes of an open AI, what would you say its competitive advantages are? Well, I think the most important thing that people miss about Google is that, you know, it has a dominance in search, which is now threatened, I guess. But, okay, so search, but it also happened to have the number two mobile, um, choice, which was Android. It now has a cloud business, which Amazon invented and these guys were late to, but they're one of three winners. They're one of three cloud companies with Amazon and Microsoft. And now it's got the Gemini, which is one of the top two or three, depending on who you ask, large language models, proprietary large language models. So in every case, for the last four technological disruptions, Google has a place, a place to play, and these are winner take all economics. So what's nice about Alphabet is that in each one of these tech waves, they've had the human capital to take advantage of it and the strategic position. And as we all know, with generative AI, data is really becomes more valuable, and who has better data than Google? Between YouTube and search, they have data that's second to none with their 3 billion, um, active monthly users. So I actually just think they're really well positioned strategically for the generative AI future.
